Digimon Adventure: Dualism of Light and Dark
by Ashes-Athanasia
Summary: The Digimon sense a great war is brewing. With the help of children from around the world, they hope to be prepared for what is coming. Tai, Matt, Davis, Cody, and everyone are called to the digital world to help fight a war that is just dawning. To make matters worse, a mysterious black mist has appeared and has been creeping over the land. Sorato and Takari. Slightly AU.
1. Chapter 1

It was just another summer night.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Tai's phone lay beside him with unread texts from friends asking to hang out sometime since school was over for the summer. Tai was surfing the internet and looking up the match up for his favorite professional soccer teams for the upcoming tournament. He browsed the date and city where the next World Cup would be. That's when it happened. A bright light shone in his room; blinding everything in Tai's bedroom.

"Ugh, who put the sun in my room," Tai said as he shielded his eyes. "That's my digivice! Is there trouble in the Digi World?"

Tai moved his laptop aside and went toward his desk shielding his eyes from the light emitting from it. Once he grabbed his digivice, there was thud as Tai's laptop fell from his bed onto the floor. By this time, the light had faded from the digivice once it had contact with Tai. The screen on the fallen computer changed color, and the soccer stats disappeared. Tai eyed the screen as it turned yellow.

"Tai, can you hear me?" called a familiar voice from the computer speakers.

Tai quickly made his way over to the computer, "Hey, big guy, I can hear you just fine. You may want to step back. I think I have a view of your stomach." Tai chuckled at the situation.

"Tai," Agumon called out excitedly as he stepped away from the viewing.

"It's nice to see you again, big guy," Tai said and gave a big grin.

Agumon hadn't changed much as Tai got a good look at him now that he could see all of his dear friend. On the other hand, Tai had changed. He was now 17 years old. He was more muscular, in a lean way, than he was before and you could tell he was a kid who loved sports. Tai's hair hadn't changed, but as of right now, Tai wore a folded bandana to keep his hair out of his eyes.

"Tai, what's that thing on your face?" Agumon asked as he eyed Tai's attempt at growing a beard to look older. "Are you sick?"

"No, no," he chuckled, "It's my beard. When male humans get older, they can grow facial hair. Some chicks like it, "Tai said.

"I don't know Tai, you kind of look like Gazimon. You know, that hair that's longer on their chin," responded Agumon.

In truth, Tai looked ridiculous, and Kari has told him to shave it, but Tai was too stubborn to listen. He was proud of being able to have facial hair.

Tai made a face at Agumon picturing what he was describing.

"Oh Tai, I was able to contact you because there is trouble in the digital world, and we need the Digidestined's help. Right now the others are contacting their partners and letting them know. It's urgent Tai. Evil has come back, Digimon are collapsing from whatever the source is. Some are even depleting their health purposely so they can become a Digi eggs again." Agumon said his eyes showing great worry and concern.

"Wait, digimon are committing suicide?" Tai asked his eyes wide with shock.

All of a sudden, Kari rushed into Tai's bedroom. The door banged loudly in her rush to get in. Her eyes held so much worry about them and also determination.

"Tai, have you heard?" Kari asked.

"Yeah, Agumon just told me about it," Tai replied. "We need to get to the digital world fast! Kari, open the portal!"

Kari approached the laptop and held up her D-3. Before they knew it, they were sucked into the screen. Tai landed with a loud thud. Kari fell on top of Tai once she had made it trough the portal. They had landed in a clearing in a big forest within the digital world.

"Thanks for breaking my fall."

"No, problem," Tai groaned from underneath her. Kari got off of him and got up to her feet. She brushed the dirt from her clothes. She felt a sudden chill go through her spine. Gatomon and Agumon rushed over to their partner's side and gave them a welcome back hug. Kari hugged Gatomon fiercely, but she couldn't shake this feeling.

"Look who finally decide to show up," called a familiar voice.

The siblings looked around and saw Matt with Gabumon walking toward them. Matt had his hands in his pocket and looked as "cool" as ever. Behind him stood all the others with their respective Digimon. However, Kari began to feel like something eerie was surrounding the area.

"Hey, Matt long time no see!" said Tai as he walked over to Matt

"You too, man!" Matt said as they grabbed each other's hand and did that hand grab that guys normally do.

The Digi destined were together again, and it was a sight to see as old friendships came alive again and inside jokes were told, especially about Tai's beard. Davis and the others were also there too. Ken seemed to be attached to the hip to Yolei. Though, that was to be expected since they just started dating. You could also catch Matt eyeing Sora with this sort of soft look in his eyes for her. It wasn't for sure by the others if they were together or not. It was more of a down low thing for them. When questioned they would usually make a joke about it and brush the question to the side. However, Takeru knew that they were secretly seeing each other. They kept it a secret because if they were to break up they didn't want tension within the group of Digi destined. Sora has already dealt with that drama with her friends with taking sides, and the last thing she wanted was for it to happen to them and their unique group.

Everyone had grown and matured. Kari, Takeru, and the newer digidestined were all 14 years old. The previous generation of Digidestined was now in their late teens. Joe was looking like a very intellectual and professional man, and so was Izzy. Mimi had a new hairstyle from the last time. Her hair was Auburn color now. Sora's hair was a little longer, and she was, of course, very beautiful and showed her feminine side a little more. Matt had shaggy hair, and he was muscular in lean way from working out. Takeru also had shaggy hair and he wore beanie now. Kari hadn't changed much except growing and changing with her biology. Her hair was still short and around her neck was whimsical bandana. Davis had finally changed his hair style. His afro like hair style was gone, and he had more of shaggy tousled hair of spikes. Cody had shot up in height, and his hair was long and tied back. The ponytail he had reached the base of his neck. His hair was also parted on the side and didn't have bangs. He had been exploring and training in the digital world for a kendo tournament he had coming up. He hadn't bothered to find someone to cut his hair back to its original style. Yolei hadn't changed much. She had stopped growing and didn't seem to tower over everyone. She sported an aviator's hat instead of her helmet. It was part of the new clothes that the portal gave her. Ken had also changed his hair. He seemed to have decided against the even lined cut he had and let his hair be more of what it is naturally. The ends had more of point to them and made it seem more natural. It framed his fame very well.

Takeru eyed Kari as he noticed something was wrong. She was his best friend after all. He didn't want to call attention to it though while everyone was having their reunion with each other. She seemed to on edge as if something were to happen or grab her.

"Okay, I think we have had our reunion long enough. We need to focus on why we were called here," said Joe as he adjusted his glasses. His pose was confident, something he had cultivated over the years.

"I agree," said Palmon and nodded for the effect. "My friends back in my village are affected by what's going on. One of them turned themselves back into a Digi Egg." Palmon had sadness within her as she said the last part.

"There has been this mist of darkness descending upon some areas of the digi world too," Tentomon said. "Get an eerie feeling from it, and not all digimon can feel it."

"Well, let's go find the digimon responsible and squash it into its place," chimed in Davis. He was ready to get going on this next adventure.

"It's not that easy, Davis," Sora replied; always the voice of reason. "We don't know where this digimon is or where it is. We have no idea what we are up against. Plus, we aren't the only ones called here to help. Digimon from all over are calling their partners here."

"We have a feeling this is going to be a great battle. We instinctively sense something great is coming. We sense in the air this feeling that war is going to break out," Said Biyomon.

"I have the location of one of the teams of humans called here by their digimon to help. They have been here longer than us and have gathered some research on the situation. Their team's primary focus is gathering research. It's not a far walk from here, and they are expecting us," Izzy said. "There are other teams located across the digital world that are also gearing up for what the digimon are instinctively sensing."

"Great, Izzy! Just lead the way. We need to help in any way we can if this trouble is as really bad as it seems." Said Tai. "You rea—"

Tai was interrupted by a thunderous burp from Veemon. Davis had shared some chocolate with Veemon that he had on him. The burp seemed to carry, and the teens wouldn't be surprised if the research team they were to visit had heard it.

"You should say 'excuse me' after your burp," Palmon said while everyone one just gave Davis an irritated look.

All of a sudden, the bird type digimon in the trees around them took flight in a hurry. There was something coming, and all the digimon could feel it. Gatomon got in front of Kari, who was having a bad feeling in her stomach about this. Dark tendrils could be seen in the distance between the tree trunks.

"There's danger," said Gabumon and everyone braced themselves for what was to come.

"Maybe Tai's face will scare it off, "joked Gomamon. Everyone laughed a little, except Tai, of course, and Cody. Cody could sense this was not a time to be joking around. He has been training in the Digi world for a month, and he has become in tune with sensing danger.

Once the chuckles had died, everything was silence except for sounds of snapping echoing through the forest. Out of the trees around them emerged five Ghoulmon. The dark mist by their side. The dark tendrils had stopped at the edge of the trees before it reached the clearing where digidestined were.

"Ghoulmon, don't usually cause wickedness they are more for being neutral," said Tentomon.

"Agumon digivolve!" said Tai. "I got this, hold off and see if I'll need your help." Agumon digivolved into Metal Greymon and roared loudly.

"Don't attack yet Metal Greymon, "Commanded Tai, "they may not be here to attack us."

The ghoalmon circled around them, before darting back into the tendrils of darkness that they had brought with them.

"Interesting," Izzy commented as he watched what transpired.

The ground shook beneath them, and their digivices all began to glow. They couldn't see. The brightness overwhelmed everything. Metal Greymon digivolved back into his rookie from and covered his eyes from the bright light. His response was the same as the other digimon.

Beyond the blinding light, Kari could see the darkness fast approaching them. The tendrils were racing towards them. Before she knew it, they were all entangled in it. The only response anyone had to the mist was to get down on the ground and lie down prone. It was like their body was too exhausted to move, and something heavy within them weighed them down. They couldn't summon the motivation to move even one muscle. Kari could feel her heart ache with so much pain. It hurt so bad all she could do was just lay there letting the ache ripple through her chest. Kari found she had tears streaming down her face. Distantly she could hear that everyone else was crying too. She could hear painful sobbing. Kari understood that this mist was causing the distressing feeling that were torturing them. It didn't take a genius to figure it out.

The digidestined felt so much pain, and they all found their mind wouldn't stop thinking. There was this hollow pain that crept over them like raging waves in a stormy sea. The feeling was horrible. It was something Takeru never wanted to experience ever again. The feeling was worthlessness. All the digidestined succumb to this uselessness, futility, and utter darkness and tears begin to stream down their face faster. Even the Digimon were afflicted in similar way. They felt like they couldn't see the end; everything seemed to keep going until they arrived at answer of pointlessness.

Tai could remember all his failures like they were movie. He recalled how he made Agumon into a monster and made him digivolve into Skull Greymon. It's one of the things he regretted most. He had treated Agumon so badly, and Agumon had saved his life multiple times.

Agumon doesn't deserve a partner like me, Tai thought.

Tai remembered all his mistakes one the previous adventure and the fight he got into with his parents. He remembered how the cool kids in school had decided to ditch him and how the girls would sometimes just chuckle at him behind his back. He remembered his homecoming dance and how his date had stood him up. That is, he thought she did, till he found her with another guy at the dance. Tai felt himself grow minuscule and felt pain he hadn't felt before over those situations.

Matt remembered how much of mean kid he was to Gabumon and Tai back on their first adventure because he was trying to cover up how much he cared about Takeru. He didn't feel like he was allowed to show that side of himself or something bad might happen. He was afraid his friends would leave him if he showed them that weak side. He was afraid they would abandon him. Everyone leaves in life, and it's something that really hurt Matt. He found himself wondering if his father ever regretted him. His father would be probably happily married again if he didn't have a son to guide and take care of. All Matt could think about is how all his friends eventually leave, and he felt like he couldn't take it. He felt his body ache from the emotional pain he was feeling.

Ken was laying on his back. He remembered feeling this. He remembers this, but not the extent he was experiencing it now. Ken noted that the area now smelled like it was raining, but there was no rain. He stared at the sky above and noticed the dark mist had completely blocked out the sky and the sun. Ken could remember vividly the sound of ocean. The dark ocean. He was terrified. At least he acknowledged he should have been, but he felt nothing. It's like he didn't care anymore. He mental understood though he was terrified even if his body wasn't. Ken registered that Wormon as next to him, and he tried to remember how good of a friend he was to him, even when Ken was evil. All of a sudden, Ken felt the hold the darkness had over him lessen, and he found he could motivate himself to sit up.

"Focus on your friendship with your digimon, or someone, and how they were always there for you," Ken said as he tried to wipe the tears forming in his eyes. The lessening hold made it so they stopped streaming down their face. The next thought Ken had pulled him back into his previous state of agony. He had thought about whether everyone really trusted him or not. He felt like he was a disgrace to them, and they really had no right to trust him.

Arrows of light shot through the mist. Breaking holes in the dense mist that blocked out the sky. One arrow barely missed Joe as it struck the ground. A beam of light broke through the mist creating another hole. The numerous arrows that came down shone with great brilliance and their light started making the mist disappear. The darkness ebbed away, and the digimon and their partners were released from their torturous prison. They all sat up and saw several Angemon and Angewomon flying above the forest clearing.


	2. Chapter 2

Three angel digimon stood silently before the teens. They had descended to the ground once the dark mist had disappeared. The others were still up in the sky took care of the rest of the forest, and saluted to the three on the ground, before leaving them behind with the teens.

"Digimon with light type attacks are part of the team trying to control the darkness. There light attacks makes the darkness disspiate," said Izzy as he tried to explain what happened.

Izzy could feel Tai's and Joe's eyes on him. He was also sure, without looking, Sora suspected him too with all the information he seemed to already have. Izzy glanced for a moment at Sora to see if he was correct. Sora stood with her arms crossed over her chest and Izzy knew she understood that she was being left in the dark about something.

Izzy hadn't wanted to reveal the others how much he knew of what was going on. He wanted to wait until they got to the team nearby. Izzy knew he was going to have some interrogating coming soon. He felt bad about leaving them in the dark, but he was requested help earlier than now because of his intelligence and researching skills. The others were more adapt at fighting and therefore were alerted until later. Izzy had been helping the others in the digital world for months now. Luckily, he had decided to take online classes this year and was able to complete them while he was in the digital world. Izzy knew he was lucky that he had chosen online classes because it had unknowingly allowed him to be an asset in preparing for the coming war.

Izzy shook his head of his thoughts, and focused back on the Angemon, Angewomon, and Darcmon that stood before them.

"What he says is correct. We are part of the scouting department. Within that department there are different legions. To make it short, we are part of the legion that watches for the dark mist and assigned to stop it before it gets too powerful. We are assigned to rescue digimon caught up in the dark mist as well," said Angemon as he gripped his staff tightly. The weak breeze in the air made his hair blow forward slightly.

"We were told to report to this area because we saw the darkness awakening, and research team Alpha alerted us that you were here. They located your position, and gave us your coordinates before it was too late. With the unexpected awakening they have requested that we escort you to the research center," said a Darcmon. Her eyes gazed at the children intently and warning them how serious this was.

"Alright," said Izzy as he eyed the others hoping they would comply. To his luck, neither Tai, Matt, nor Davis protested. Izzy figured the experience they had with the mist told them that they needed to be guided in case another awakening of dark fog happens.

So the teens finally began the journey to the team Izzy had mentioned. To be more specific, they were heading to research team Alpha. Izzy had been working with them for months on various projects. They had been trying to analyze the dark mist that was just faintly beginning to appear and had made some progress. The results of their investigation included the formation of a team to dissipate the dark mist. Izzy with a few others on team Alpha and with a lot of help from another team, made a survival guide book for the Digital World. It was given to almost every human in the digital world. The book listed the plants and foods that are good to eat, how to get water, and other survival tricks.

Little did the teens know, this step marked the start of the phase of no return in their journey. They could not turn back, no matter how much they wanted too after this point. At times, Izzy had wished there had been a way to turn back. He wished there had been a way to not let so many people be involved. Some of partners in the Digital World were only ten years old. Izzy still had nightmares of his experiences in the digital world. He would sometimes see Piedmon or Myotismon. He wasn't the only one either. Tai also had them. Tai had admitted it when Izzy brought it up one day. He wished so many people didn't have to be involved.

When they arrived to the outskirts of their destination everyone except Izzy and Cody were surprised at what they saw. What they saw when they had arrived looked like little town and within the town was huge castle. The castle was a bright white and had blue trim on the windows and on the door. The roof of the castle was even blue. You could see Patamons flying about in the air in the town. Flybeemon were also seen flying around. On the ground there many different kind of digimon.

Within the beautiful castle was the Research team Alpha. It was where they resided. They shared the castle with other teams and digimon as well. The castle was just too big for only one research team. The other research teams in different areas of the digital world had much smaller buildings and were only able to house the research team.

"We've never been here before," Tai said among the side conversations going on amongst there big group. Tai gazed at the humble houses and then at the big castle.

"I guess it goes to show just how big the Digital World is," said Matt.

"What do you think is in that Castle?" asked Mimi.

Angewomon answered, "The castle is our destination. That is where research team Alpha is. They are expecting your arrival. They are the ones that asked us to keep you safe and escort you here."

As the teens were making their way up to the castle, Takeru saw a Terriermon playing with a Labramon. They tussled on the ground and were making funny faces at each other and laughing. Takeru felt himself smile at the sight. He glanced beside him at Kari who was looking at the same thing. Takeru noticed how pretty she looked with that expression. Takeru quickly looked away when he noticed Gatomon had caught him. Takeru looked back at the Labramon and Terriermon and felt like there wasn't going to be any war. Everything was so peaceful and so many digimon were getting along in the town they were in. Takeru knew though; it was just the calm before the storm.

They entered the castle upon reaching it. Inside, they followed the angel Digimons up a flight of stairs and down a few corridors, before they stopped in front of a large door. The wood of the door was very ornate and had ancient digimon on it that no one in the group had ever seen before. The only one they knew on the door was Azulongmon. Darcmon knocked loudly on the door.

"Come in," came a masculine voice.

Darcmon opened the large doors. Inside was a large room and in the room sat about 20 people typing away at computers. Once the door had opened a girl with auburn hair quickly got up from her computer, and before Izzy was even through the threshold he was grabbed into a tight bear hug. She had her hair braided down her back, and she was slightly shorter then Izzy. Tai grinned when he saw Izzy's face go red and Davis started laughing.

When the girl finally let go of him, Izzy introduced her: "This is Lana."

Lana said something afterward to the group, but no one understood what she said.

"Is she speaking german?" Ken asked. His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration as he tried to figure out what language she was speaking.

"uh…yeah," said Izzy nervously.

They heard other voices speaking something they didn't understand in the room. The only word the others could make out was "Izzy." Izzy greeted them as they called out his name. He could feel stares drilling into his back. The eyes of friends not liking being left out of loop.

Izzy knew it was time to spill the beans.

"Izzy, what's going on?" Sora asked as she eyed him with her arms across her chest

"Yeah, I would like to know too," Joe said. Everyone nodded or spoke their agreement on the matter.

"Well, I have been informed on the situation earlier, when it was first beginning, and have been helping doing research for a while now. Most of you guys were contacted just now because we are at a stage where we need your help," Izzy stated. Izzy went on to tell them about what they have been doing and that he is part of research team Alpha. And that was also why he had the portal bring them so close to the team's headquarters. In the back ground, Lana would say something and Izzy would look at her and then say something. Lana was putting in information in that she thought Izzy should include in the briefing.

"Okay, I think I get what you are saying, but how can you work with people speaking a different language, dude?" exclaimed Davis.

"Ah, excellent question Davis! Have you ever noticed that digimon can speak whatever language their partner speaks? Digimon are obviously programed and designed to understand any language then. Under this premise we concluded that it must be part of their coding. Part of their data. Well proceeding from that information, we had a theory that since technically we are all made up of data when we enter the digital world, we could manipulate data to where we universally understand each other. The theory was a success. I can understand everything my team mates are saying. Everyone in the Digital World is able to too. Once someone arrives in the Digital World they get a notice on their digivice about linguistic scan and they also receive directions on how to get to the closest facility that has one. You did not receive one since I was with you and was taking you to one," said Izzy all excited, "I just need to set up the scanner."

Lana and Izzy headed to the left side of the room where a rectangular machine stood. At the top end of the rectangular object was another smaller one attached to it. It had an overhang. At the back of the machine Izzy flipped a few switches and the scanner turned on. It turned on with a low buzz sound. Lana sat a computer that seemed to be integrated to the machine with wires. She typed a way at the computer for a moment and clicked a few times before she hit the enter button.

In the large room they were in, besides the clicking and tapping of computer keyboards, there were two guys talking to each other. The conversation was in a different language. No one understood the conversation except everyone who had had the scan. The digidestined, except for Cody and Izzy, only heard noise to them and were out of luck if any of them had desired to eavesdrop on the conversation. They couldn't focus on anything being said. It all just sounded like noise to them. One of the boys had red hair and above his desk was pictures that lined the wall. The pictures were of digimon and their partners. Most of the flyers had red words inked across them except for one of them. The flyer only had the red words across the Dobermon. The partner's picture was untouched. The picture was of a girl. She looked about 16 years old. She had short platinum blonde hair and blue-green eyes. Kari immediately took notice of the flyers and wondered what they were for. Above those pictures were pictures of people with large X's drawn through them. Kari had a sense of dread with what that meant.

Lana abruptly called out something while looking at the group. She said it again, before she realized her mistake. Izzy had finished up his look over of the machine to see if it was running good.

"She said everything is ready," said Izzy translating her for his group of friends. "What you have to do is stand underneath that overhang of the machine and it will do a scan. The scan will alter your listening data to be able to understand any language. It will appear to us that everyone is speaking Japanese and writing Japanese."

"Izzy, not to sound rude, but are you sure this is safe?" asked Joe. "We won't gain the ability to turn into a digiegg or digivolve, right?"

"No, everything is fine. If you die in this world then your body remains it doesn't turn into data or turn into a digiegg. That's how our human coding is different," replied Izzy in a matter of fact way.

"Whoa, Izzy what's with the death, part. Chill man, who is going to die?" said Davis.

"Davis, what's happening is very serious. We may already have people who have died out here in the Digital World. Different departments were organized in the beginning when the sense of evil was just barely there. The intelligence department and Combat department as well as a few others were among the first. There is a branch which falls within both the intelligence and Combat department and it has had many people not return from their missions. Most of them are filed under MIA. The branch is called the general name of the scouting legion. One squad was completely obliterated. One person's body was torn in half. The digimon had been reverted to digieggs. And the digieggs had been tainted with evil data," stated Izzy. His eyes were so intense as they stared at his friends. Davis had grown quiet and his confident face had darkened in gravity of what was happening.

"This is your chance to back out now," said Izzy gravely.

"Izzy, I'm going under that machine. I'm not going anywhere," Said Tai as he clenched his fist. He was more determined than ever to help.

"I'm not running away either," said Kari with the same determined face Tai had. They were definitely related.

"Count me in too," said Matt.

"Edmund Burke said: 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.' I won't stand around and do nothing as evil tries to consume the Digital World," said Takeru.

"Takeru, you're right. Evil will prevail if we sit in fear and don't do anything. That's the last thing I will ever let happen here," said Sora and looked at Takeru and then let herself Gaze at Matt how was right beside him.

Eventually everyone agreed, and no one wanted to turn back. Izzy was partly relieved by the fact they now seemed to understand what they were up against, but he was still worried about what the future held.

"Alright, Tai, you ready," asked Izzy as he looked at Tai who was underneath the machine.

"All good," called Tai and gave Izzy a thumbs up.

Izzy put in the startup code and the scan started. Out of the floor came out blue rings. They were untouchable and circled around Tai until there was a beep. They then dissipated. The scan was complete. The process was the repeated for each digidestined and they were greeted by all the people in the room once the process was complete. They mingled and tested out the results of linguistic scan.

Tai conversed with a boy with red hair. His name was Glen. He had an agumon just like Tai. Hence, Tai took an interest in him. Davis talked to some of the girls that worked for team Alpha. Cody was already acquainted with Izzy's teammates from being in the digital world for training, and he seemed at ease with some of guys. They told inside jokes and laughed. Matt and Ken were talking with Izzy and a few others about the idea of manipulating data. Sora was by Matt's side too. Yolei and Takeru were meeting Cody's friends that were on team Alpha. Mimi was talking to Lana about their hair colors and also about what can be expected in their adventure.

Kari, after having talked to a few people and introduced herself to them, approached the pictures she had seen. She could now understand the writing. The writing read: found. Kari looked at each flyer. She still didn't know what the "X's" on some of them meant.

"Kari, what are looking at," asked Gatomon who appeared beside her on the desks below the flyers. Gatomon had noticed that Kari had stopped mingling with the others. Gatomon had previously been, across the room, sitting on a desk near Matt trying to understand what Izzy was saying about how they were able to manipulate the data of humans to be able to understand any language.

"I'm trying to figure out what these pictures are for," replied Kari. She had her hands behind her back. One hand was wrapped around the wrist of the other. She was nervously moving her wrist up and down. It was something that Gatomon had noticed early on about Kari. It was something she did when something was on her mind.

A boy with dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes approached Kari and held out his hand to her.

"Hi, I'm Franz, I overheard you say you wanted to know what the posters were for," he said.

"Yes, that's right. My name is Hikari, but everyone calls me Kari," Kari said as she shook his hand that was held out to her.

"Those flyers are something Glen put up. He is the kid with the red hair over there talking to Tai, if I remember correctly," Franz said as they both turned back towards the wall to look at the pictures. The giant windows on both sides made the pieces of paper seem insignificant and tiny. It was like the windows drowned out the importance of the flyers.

"He put them up to remind himself that this isn't game he is playing. He is very big into chess back home, and, unlike chess, when a plan fails there will be real consequences. The ones with x's on them are of the team who died. Izzy mentioned them to you before he scanned you guys," Franz continued.

Kari looked over the flyers with x's on them. The people in the photos looked a few years older than Tai. They looked like young adults. It was hard to hear of people dying in the Digiworld since from her adventures none of them had ever died.

Franz glanced at Kari and smirked like he was trying to hold in a chuckle," Glen also has a big crush on that girl there with the really blonde hair. To me, I think he partly does it to remind himself that she is still missing. Though, he says it is to show the true beginnings of the war."

Kari eyed the girl with platinum blonde hair again. She noticed that beside the girl's photo was a picture of a Dobermon. It had the words "found" stamped over. Gatomon also noticed it and beat Kari to the punch.

"They found her Digimon, but not her?" asked Gatomon.

"Yeah, her Digimon used all his energy trying to protect her. He was reverted back into a digi-egg by his opponent. He was found back in Primary Village," replied Franz.

All of a sudden, Franz was tackled by a terriermon. He remained standing from the impact though, and Terriermon climb to the top of his head and started to pull at Franz's brown locks.

"You know that Glen doesn't like you telling people he has a crush on her," scolded the Terriermon.

"Ouch, ouch! She asked Terriermon!" replied Franz as he tried to get his digimon out of his hair.

Kari and Gatomon could only stare at the scene as Franz tried to get his Terriermon to stop. They definitely felt like they sweat dropped with how ridiculous a situation this was. The relationship between these two partners was very odd. It seemed like, for once, the Terriermon was the responsible one.

Abruptly, a loud sound echoed through the room. The members of team Alpha dashed to their respective desks mid-conversation with the Digi destined. Whatever was happening it was urgent. Before the digidestioned knew it, they were being shoved out of the room by an Andromon. They each carried out by the collar of their shirt or by their pants and the door was closed in front of their faces.

They turned around and looked at the giant corridor. They were surprised when a White Pawnmon approached them.

"I will show you to your quarters for now," said the Pawnmon as he started walking down the corridor. The teens followed Pawnmon. Tai and Davis did reluctantly.

"Gee, just when I thought I could really get to explore this place," sighed Tai. Davis complained about the same thing as well.

"I didn't know we were sleeping here," said Sora.

Pawnmon replied, "Izzy mentioned you might not know. Very well, the portal to the Digital World and the Human World are closed off. People from the real world can come in to the Digital World, but only under special cases allowed by team Alpha is anyone or anything allowed to go from the digital world to the Real world."

"So what you are saying is that we're stuck here, unless team Alpha opens a portal for us?" cried Davis. He then added, "I told my mother I would be home before dinner!"


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a few days since the digidestened first arrived at the castle. Izzy had much to explain and he had to meet with the head mangers to discuss what they were going to use the digidestined officially for. A major part of their delay was because the digivices had to be updated with the latest advancements that the research teams had developed over the course of the few months before the digidestined had been called to the Digital World.

Davis had been allowed to return home time for dinner. In fact, they were all allowed to return to the Real World to grab things they thought they would need for journey. Most of the digidestined informed their parents they were going on a trip, but a few who knew about the digital world knew that their kids were lying. The parents understood though and urged them to be careful. They knew they couldn't stop them from going.

The excuse of taking a trip was for security reasons. It would have been suspicious if there was a rise in kids going missing around the world, so as part of the plan by the departments the kids were to say they were taking trips to different places around the world with some friends.

Takeru knew his mom was worried and he didn't like doing that to her, but there was nothing he could do. Takeru felt badly about what he was doing to his mother again.

Takeru was currently fiddling with his updated digivice. The digivice now had a hologram screen that popped up from the little screen the device had. Takeru was examined the map trying to get used to features on it. A blue dot on the map showed where Patamon was. There also was green dots on the map and they showed where a human was. The dot for humans were only green if they also had a digivice. The dots indicating a human were usually yellow and digimon were orange.

Takeru had already played with the other features on his digivice. One of the new features by team Alpha was a scanner device on the digivice. They had attached a scanner to their old digivices. The scanner made it possible to scan clothes and medicine and have them stored in the digivice, and when you needed them you could release the data and they would be ready to go. The idea that developed this advancement was the fact the Digital World was made to be a game, so just like an MMO one could theoretically make a storage system just like in a video game. Their theory proved to be correct.

When the digivices were confiscated from them, Izzy explained to them that since they already had digivices they would have to be manually updated. According to Izzy, they are certain a human first created the digivice and set it in the program to reveal itself when it was needed. The research department just enhanced the framework of the digivice, so when new people arrive they would automatically receive the updated version of the digivice. Though, they had yet to figure out how to change the whole digivice into a new digivice, like what happened with Kari's and Takeru's digivice when they were trying to stop the digimon emperor.

Takeru had to admit the things they had come up with were quite brilliant. The way they wrapped their heads around the Digital World reality and were able to come up with so many advancements was astounding. When he talked to Franz on team Alpha he had learned that Franz's hobby was designing video games. It made a lot of sense that many of the people in the Research Department were into video game design. He doubted anyone besides them could have looked at this world and seen beyond what was right in front of them.

Takeru lay back in the grass and gazed at the sky. He was bored with messing with his digivice and wanted to enjoy the nice air. He slipped his digivice into his pocket. Takeru was wearing some clothes that he purchased in town. Cephas town. That was the name of the town they were in.

Only clothes in the Digital World could be converted into data and it had created booming industry within the digital world. Medicine was different though. It could be converted into data once it was not in the real world, because that was what the Research department was mostly focused on. It had taken numerous resources to be able to do it, and to be honest the research department found it more important than clothes. Takeru agreed with it. If clothes could be purchased in the digital world then it was fine. He understood how important it was for there to be access to inhalers and bandages. He definitely understood why the Research department made that call. With the scanning of medicine, it had allowed for the data to copied and be recreated. Therefore, digimon with their own shops had started selling them too. Joe had examined the medicine the digimon created to be just like the ones in the real world. Takeru wasn't so sure that was a good thing considering people abused drugs in the real world already and the last thing they needed was for there to be digimon who did it. Though most of medication worked only on humans.

With the ability to store clothes in a digivice, it had created fad among the digimon to sport some cloth clothing and for shops to sell them. He had gone shopping with Kari at the shops in Cephas Town today, and he had seen a lot of digimon sporting hats. Kari even bought Gatomon a bandanna to wear so they could match. The payment they made was in bartering since they didn't have any Digi-money at the moment. Izzy had given them digital items to trade in town to get some supplies and medicine.

Takeru remembered in his first adventure to the digital world there were always a few digimon who wore clothing for jobs or disguises, but now it had become more popular since the humans had been arriving to the digital world. The increase in inventory of clothes in the digi-shops was mostly because humans liked to have clean clothes, so they bought a lot of outfits. He also supposed humans brought more of a model on what to do with clothes and the digimon picked up on the idea of expressing yourself with clothes. They used them show your individuality. Which was understandable, Takeru would hate to look like everyone else and he could only imagine how hard it was to determine who was who in a village with all the same digimon.

While shopping with Kari, Takeru had gotten some pants that fit him well and were designed to endure a lot of running. He was currently wearing some of the clothes he bought. The shirt he was wearing was made for traveling and the long sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He also bought another beanie to wear, but the one he bought at the shop had the symbol of hope on it. Takeru couldn't resist getting it. He wore it right after he bought it.

Takeru liked that his crest was hope. He found purpose and satisfaction in being able to remind people there was hope. It hadn't meant much to him as a little kid, but now he really liked his crest. Hope is something that was needed to fight or to do anything. It was an essential component to everything and Takeru knew that there will be times when others will need reminding that there is hope. He hoped that his hat could remind passing digimon that there was still hope.

Abruptly, a face appeared above Takeru's, and out of surprise he had tried to lunge up from his spot. His head ended up colliding with the Kari's head. There was a light thud from impact. Hikari immediately move her head back and held her forehead.

"ow," they both said. Takeru rubbed his head as Kari leaned away from his head.

"Ouch, I guess that's what I get for sneaking up on you," said Kari as she rubbed her forehead. She was kneeling a little ways above Takeru on the grassy hill he was relaxing on.

"I'm sorry. Are you alright?" Takeru asked as he fully sat up and he turned around to see what the damage was. Takeru had actually been meaning to talk to Kari. He had noticed something has been wrong for a few days now. He also knew Gatomon was getting really worried too and had spoken to him about it.

"Yeah, its fine, Takeru," replied Kari and smiled at him as she finished rubbing it with her hand. "So what are you doing, Takeru?"

"I was just enjoying being outside." Replied Takeru as he tilted his head up to look at the sky. "Did you know that Cody has been helping Team Alpha while he was out here training? He really is part Izzy."

"Haha, I know," Kari chuckled, "and Joe was actually helping Izzy with logging different foods we ate from our first adventure, and he had no idea. Izzy didn't tell Joe it was going to be a real book."

Kari scooted near Takeru and sat beside him, "This is great spot you found Takeru!"

Takeru smiled as she sat beside him. Takeru loved these moments with Kari. There was something about just hanging out one on one with your best friend. Takeru would actually kind of classify himself as introvert because he preferred small groups over a large crowd of people. Takeru loved having one on one conversations. He especially loved them with Kari because he felt like they both grew from them. She was quite different from other people. She thought about others and looked at their side of the story. He will always remember how she felt bad for Black Wargreymon and how she was able to empathize with him. It made him look at Black Wargreymon differently. It gave him another perspective, and he knew from the lesson he learned that day, he was able to become a little bit more of a better person.

"You can also see the people in town from up here. It looks so peaceful," Takeru said as he gazed back out at the town.

In the town there were a few digimon flying about doing their daily errands. In the distance you could see the Castle. The town was small, but it wasn't like the Koromon Village with the hay houses. The houses in town were made of wood or stone. It kind of reminded him of Real World in a way. He also really liked the diversity of Digimon that lived in Cephas town. You could see life taking place ad growing. You could also hear soft chatter coming from the town too. It was like this was how the Digital World was meant to be.

"Yeah, it does," Kari replied and smiled at him.

"Have you tried out the new features on our digivices?" asked Takeru as he looked back at her.

"Yeah," Kari said, "they're pretty awesome! Have you tried out the updated d-terminal Izzy gave us? Tai and I communicated over video with it while I was looking for medical supplies."

The way she looked at Takeru just then alerted him again that something was on her mind. He gazed into her eyes and knew something was really worrying her, but he wanted to let her bring it up on her own and he felt like she was trying to get to that point right now. He felt like she was trying really hard to get the courage to talk to him about what was on her mind. It was one of her flaws, he wasn't sure how it developed, but she had a real hard time with venting how she felt. It included anger, sadness, worry, and other emotions. Takeru had a theory it had to do with how hard her mother pushed her. He reckoned it had to do with perfectionism and they say perfectionist parents raise perfectionist kids.

"I haven't tried the D-terminal yet. I have been mostly messing with my digivice," Takeru replied.It was quiet for a few minutes and the young teens had taken to watching the peaceful mundane workings of the town from their vantage point on the hill.

"Does it bother you that there isn't someone trying control the digimon with rings or gears?" asked Kari

"Not really, I mean I hope this new threat doesn't try to turn good digimon into slaves. If you ask me, it is getting kind of boring," Takeru joked trying to comfort her, "Kari, what's on your mind, normally that wouldn't bother you? Normally you would be glad that tactic was finally given up."

Kari's eyes held so much worry in them once Takeru asked outright about what was on her mind, but Kari couldn't bring herself to talk about it. "It's nothing, Takeru. I'm just worried about Tai. As you know, Tai and Matt are going to be stationed in one of combat teams."

Takeru knew it was lie. She wouldn't look him in the eye as she said it, and Takeru also noticed she was really tense. He wasn't going to push her on it though. He could tell just by looking at her this wasn't about Tai with how tense she was. He has seen her worried about Tai, but he could tell this was different. He wished she didn't try so hard. She was so bad with just speaking her mind about things. He knew though that when she was ready she would tell him. For now though, he would just settle with knowing something was worrying her and taking care of that.

"Hikari, they'll be fine don't worry about it. And I promise you'll be fine too," Takeru said and placed a hand on shoulder. On the last part of Takerus's response, Kari had looked up at him and the skin around her eyes crinkled and she gave a slight smile. Her response, Takeru realized was because she realized he was on the right track and she felt she could tell him. He had hit the nail on the hammer, and she wasn't going to hide it from him anymore.

"The dark Fog felt like the Dark Ocean. I could even hear the sound of waves. Ken also heard it. I'm worried that this might involve the Dark Ocean." she let out and closed her hand around the grass beneath her as if it were a hand supporting her. "I'm scared," Kari softly let out. Her eyes expressed how sincere she was.

"Hikari, it's okay. If I comes after you again, I'll do everything in my power to stop it from taking you," Takeru replied and gave her quick a hug.

"But what if you aren't there to protect me," Kari asked. Her eyes held so much worry in them as they looked back in Takeru's own.

"Even if I'm not there with you when it happens, I will find you and be there. And if I can't do that, I know that you are strong enough to fight it, but I will be there for you no matter what." Takeru said and moved to sit closer to her. Takeru was at a loss of what to say that wouldn't seem like it was minimizing her pain and settled for that. He knew she didn't need him, because she was so strong. It was just Kari didn't understand it herself. However, saying that might make her feel like she shouldn't be afraid or worried. And that was the last thing he wanted to do to her because it was a very scary place and she had a right to be afraid. The Dark Ocean was the place of her greatest nightmares. She would sometimes call him late at night after she had dreamt that she had gone to the Dark Ocean. Though, what Takeru had said seemed to quell her worries for a bit.

Takeru knew she had gone there once with Ken and Yolei, and He had hadn't been there. He always feels indebted to Yolei for keeping Kari safe. He sometimes has nightmares about her going there and not coming back safe and sound.

The fog could be connected to the Dark Ocean and it was something he never considered. Takeru made a mental note to speak with Izzy about it. To be honest though, Takeru was worried about the dark fog too. A part of Takeru was not only afraid for Kari, but also for himself. He honestly never wanted to experience that dark fog again. It was officially on the top of his list of things he never wanted to do again. It was followed by re-experiencing Piedmon when his friends were turned into keychains.

The dark fog was especially on the two teens' minds today because they were going to be stationed together on a darkness patrol team. It made sense they would be stationed there since their digimon could help control the mist's advancement. Their evolutions after all were Angemon and Angewomon.

Takeru put an arm around Kari and brought her close to him. It was mostly for Takeru's sake. He wanted to feel that she was safe. It was what he had settled for when they were ever in danger. He would stand in front of her like a shield or wrap an arm around her to keep her from falling off whatever mode of transportation they were on. It started when they came to rescue Gomamon and made that sled. It was rough ride and he had and arm around her so she wouldn't tumble off or fall into the freezing water. He remembered when sled tipped, because of having an arm on her he had caught her and she hadn't ended up in the freezing water like Cody.

Patamon came quickly flying up to Kari and Takeru. Takeru dropped his arm from around Kari's shoulder. Patamon didn't notice and landed on Takeru's head. He peeked down from his head and looked him in the eyes.

"I found you! Takeru, I'm hungry can we try out some of the food we bought in town today," asked Patamon as his stomach growled. Takeru could feel the rumble from the on top of his and couldn't help but chuckle.

"Sure, Patamon," Takeru said and stood up. He turned to Kari offered her a hand up and asked, "Would you like to join us?"

Kari took his hand gently and he pulled her up. Once she was standing, she smiled at Takeru and replied, "Yeah, I'm starving."

"Alright, looks like it's lunch time then," Takeru exclaimed.

Kari, Takeru, and their digimons would be leaving tomorrow to head to another town where their digivices could be further updated. It would be Kari, Sora, and him heading out tomorrow. They were still trying to determine a spot for Davis, Yolei, Ken, and Mimi. Joe agreed to be part of the medical department and work as best he could out in the field to help digimon and people back to health. He was supposedly assigned with some genius that became a doctor at age 16. Joe was pumped to see what he could learn. Cody was part of a Scouting team already. He also served as an interim between them and Research Team Alpha.

The walk to the castle didn't take too long and the food was prepared with ease inside the functional kitchen the castle had. While Takeru, Hikari, and Patamon were eating some of the food they made, Takeru found Kari staring up at the flyers in the team Alpha's work room. They decided to eat in there since they weren't sure where they were allowed to go and what was being used by other digimon. And they couldn't eat in their quarters since they had communal quarters. One room was for the boys and the other was for the girls.

In the work room, Glen was the only one still working. Everyone else was on lunch break and wanted to get out of the work room for a little bit. Glen said he was fine with them eating in there and they weren't going to be a distraction. Glen's Agumon sported a white vest with pockets. In the pockets were different kind of tools. There was wrench sticking out of the right pocket and some other tools Takeru couldn't name. Compared to Tai's Agumon, Glen's Agumon was slightly smaller in size and seemed a lot different too in personality. This Agumon was curious about everything and it also seemed to have an exorbitant amount of patience.

Kari stopped eating for a moment and swallowed. "Glen, do you have a moment?" she asked

Glen turned around from his computer and looked at them, "Sure, what's up?"

"Above your computer, why is there "X's" on some of them?" Kari asked. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Kari quickly added.

Takeru knew she didn't want to hurt Glen by bringing up feelings if what Franz told her was true about that blonde girl that was up there too.

"Nah, its fine. Those are the first people that died in a mission. I have them up to remind me that what I'm doing here is important and to motivate me to do better. In a way, I have them up there to inspire me. I don't want anyone else to die," Glen said sheepishly. "The four up there that are not crossed out are people who were MIA and we found them. The blonde girl over there," he said while pointing to the flyer, "according to the reports from the other three, she held off the Digimon they were ambushed by, so they could get a way to safety. She was never seen again, and her body was never found. The digimon she faced has be spotted though."

"Does her Digimon know if she is alive?" asked Patamon as he flew to get a better look at the flyer.

"Yeah, he does. But we aren't sure if he might've lost some of his memories when he was reverted back into a digiegg. I guess, really we don't know what to believe," said Glen as he watched Patamon land on the tower of his computer.

"She's alive then," Patamon said and smiled at Glen. "I know because I knew Takeru was alive when I became a digiegg."

"How can you be sure Patamon? When that happened you defeated Devimon, so you knew I was alive," Takeru mentioned.

"Takeru has a point, and besides he also had us with him," came voice from behind them. They turned around and saw Sora in the door way.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude I just overheard your conversation," Sora said as she smiled at them sheepishly.

"Its fine, it's not like its top secret information. You can access the MIA files and reports on your updated D-terminals. We let everyone has access to them so they can keep an eye out." Glen said and he had a slight blush on his face.

Patamon sighed and his eyes lidded showing how he taking into account what the others were saying.

"I get what you are saying, but I think she is still alive," patamon said and flew back to Takeru and picked up the rest of his lunch. He stuffed it down in no time.

"I hope so," said Kari as she gave Patamon a smile and petted his head.

"So, Sora what brought you here?" asked Glen sheepishly.

"I came here, because I was looking for Yolei. She wanted to tell me what she got assigned to" Sora said. "I haven't seen her all day."

"Come have a seat with us! She is bound to come here," said Kari.

"Thanks," Sora said as she took a seat by Takeru and Kari. Just as she sat down her D-terminal started beeping.

Sora pulled out her D-terminal Izzy gave her from her pants pocket and opened it up.

"It's Yolei! She said 'sorry', and that her and Ken are held up in the market. She says that she got assigned to Research department and Ken did as well. She also said that they are still determining what team they will be stationed at," Sora said as she read the instant message aloud to everyone.

"That's not surprising," Takeru stated.

"Yeah, and it makes sense with Ken too. He was able to make all those things like Kimeramon when he was the Digimon emperor," said Sora. "I hope they get Stationed together."

"Huh," said Glen.

"Ken and Yolei are couple," Kari replied to Glen's confusion.

Takeru, whished the same thing for Sora and Matt. He hoped they got stationed together too. Takeru knew they would both be worried about each other. From what he had heard from Matt, Sora was also stationed for combat. Matt had said they were going to try and station Tai and him together since there Digimon could DNA digivolve and they both were good at fighting. Matt hadn't gotten word about Sora, though. It seemed like she wouldn't be since she was leaving tomorrow with himself and Kari.

"Hey, Patamon, have you seen Gatomon, anywhere," asked Kari.

"Yeah, she was took a cat nap after we went shopping," Patamon replied, "I'll show you where she is."

"Thanks, Patamon!" Kari said. She ate the last bit of her lunch and stood up. Patamon watching her got up and started to fly off. Kari took off after him.

"By the way, thanks Takeru," Kari said as she crossed the threshold after Patamon.

Takeru smiled and waved at her as she left the room.

Sora looked at Kari and then Takeru, but didn't ask.

"You ready for tomorrow?" asked Sora as it was now just her and Takeru. Glen had gone back to his work with his Agumon helping him.

"Yeah, how about you?" asked Takeru.

"As ready as I'll ever be. Though I am interested in the new upgrade we get on our digivice. Izzy said it would help if we are ever separated from our digimon. He said it would help protects us and also be able to help our digimon in battle," Sora said.

"Yeah, I think he is preparing demonstration tomorrow for it once he is done making the D-terminals." Takeru replied. He gazed at Sora and could tell she was lost in thought and wasn't really paying attention to the conversation now.

"Too bad, we won't get to see it. We'll have probably left by then," Sora said.

"Sora, don't worry. He'll be fine," Takeru said.

"Thanks, Takeru," said Sora. At first Sora was taken back, and it took a minute to realize what Takeru was saying.

"No problem," stated Takeru and nodded at her.

Sora suddenly shot up from her seat and the wooden chair flew back a little from the action. "I just remembered, I haven't finished packing yet," said Sora and she left in a hurry towards the girl's dorm.

"Sora, wait up," Takeru called as he ran toward the boys dormitory to finish his packing. He had just remembered that he wasn't done thanks to Sora.


	4. Chapter 4

Sora was ready to go. Takeru and Kari were loading up their gear onto the back of their digi-armor digivolved digimon. It was more comfortable flying than in their ultimate and champion forms. The bags that Sora, Takeru, and Kari Packed had mostly contained food and clean water.

Biyomon was in digivolved of Birdamon for their flight. The giant flames that covered Birdamon's body was a sight Sora had missed. The fire reminded her how love burns and just how Birdamon's flame never go out, so love does not either. Sora from experience had learned that loving is hard a painful. It's much easier to walk away from someone than continue to choose to love someone after they had determined they were done with you. Sora was realizing that goodness was intertwined with love and goodwill was also based on love too.

In Birdamon's eyes lied great excitement for their flight, and Sora knew she couldn't wait to stretching those long wings of hers again. Sora was sure Biyomon missed digivolving into Birdamon since they had last parted from each other.

Birdamon lowered her head to Sora's level wanting Sora to stroke her beak. Sora chuckled and gently ran her hand up and down the smooth surface of Birdamon's beak.

On Birdamon's foot was something Izzy and Franz had invented. They had made a sort of saddle that went around Birdamon's toe and also wrapped around her leg. The saddle was more like a cockpit. It had protective glass that opened and locked like on an airplane. The glass protected the seat that was within it and there were seat belts and an intercom system. Intercom was so Sora could communicate with Birdamon. The frame was metal that surrounded it and seemed like it would be hard for anything to break through it and get to Sora in the cockpit.

Sora stared at the cockpit and remembered what Izzy had said prior to the commencement of their gear load up. Izzy had explained that whenever Biyomon digivolves to Birdamon it will automatically be there on her leg. He also said they had designed it specifically for battle and if they need to escape while under fire. It was to allow Birdamon to focus on flying and not have to worry about Sora who hung on her leg.

Sora was greatly relieved to have secure spot on Birdamon. The seat belts reassured her that she wouldn't slip and that Birdamon could pull off air maneuvers she needed to without worrying that Sora would fall off.

They were currently outside the castle walls, just before the town ended and made its way to the transition of the castle. Cephas town was a castle town after all, and the castle lied right in the center of the town. The rest of the town circled around it. It very much reminded Sora of the middle ages from history class. The way the castle was built to protect the town and how land had been loan to people. The design of it seemed the same, but Sora understood that this was in no way feudalism. The castle was once used as way of protecting the town. Sora was told that legend has it they use to have a powerful digimon that lived in the castle and protected all the land that fell within that region. The castle was meant as deterrent from digimon that thought taking over or attacking the town would be easy. When digimon caught site of the castle they knew the town was protected and had a fierce protector.

The stuff that Sora, Takeru, and Hikari had pack wasn't much, but the problem was more of securing the belongings to their digimon. Sora had encountered problems with this task as Birdamon was on fire and she had some concern about tying her stuff to Birdamon's leg. Kari had decided Sora's stuff would be safer riding with Nefertimon and Kari's things. The bags were easy to secure on Nefertimon and also have room for Kari on her back.

They officially were ready for takeoff, and everyone had come to see them off. Their friends stood in a straight row behind the digimon.

"Good luck, guys! Have good flight and remember what I said about flight sickness," said Joe. He was the first one to speak to break the awkwardness of their goodbye. It was strange for the digidestined to be saying goodbye and knowing they would be separated for a while on this adventure.

"We will, Joe," Kari replied and let out a giggle.

Tai, come up and hugged his sister tightly. Sora could tell both the brothers were worried about their siblings. Tai especially.

Sora could tell that with Kari getting older, her and Tai didn't talk as much. Sora assumed it had to do with them getting older and going through puberty, but Sora also suspected it had to do with Tai being busy with sports and Kari being involved in so many clubs. They were simply really busy people. However, even if they weren't as close, they still loved each other immensely.

Tai pulled away from Kari and held her shoulders and looked her in the eyes, "Be careful out there, Kari."

Matt tried to act chill and cool, and gave his brother a nonchalant hug. Sora, knew that Matt had trouble with being affectionate. It was sort of embarrassing for him. When she had picked up on this, everything made sense with how he acted with Takeru in their first adventure. He had a hard time expressing himself and his emotions. He had been conditioned with this sort of detachment. Where he tried to appear distant. Luckily, it had gotten a lot better since the first adventure and Matt was learning he didn't have to end up like his parents. He was learning that he didn't need to always protect himself by hiding how he felt.

Sora and Matt had already shared their goodbye, before she started packing. They had shared it alone on top of one of the towers of eth castles. From what Sora remembered from history class, where they had been was in one of the battlements.

They were both admiring the view from the battlement.

Wind was blowing through Matt's hair and getting in his face. He was leaning against the rough stone of the castle. His arms rested on one of the merlons as he looked out at the town that surrounded them. This had been Matt's spot to runoff to when they first arrived here.

Sora had sound him multiple times up here when she had gone looking for him. There was one night on their stay at the castle that Matt had prepared an evening of watching the stars with her there. It was a really nice date and Sora cherished it very much. It had just been them looking at the stars and spending quality time together.

You could say that it had become her and Matt's spot. And it was only fitting that Matt asked her to meet him up there that morning.

"Sora, Izzy was only able to pull strings so that Takeru and Kari were stationed together. His request was officially denied last night about having you stationed with Tai and me," Matt said with regret in his eyes. His voice was grim and had sadness in it.

"Its fine Matt, I can take care of myself," Sora said and covered one of his hands that was folded on top of the merlon. "I figured anyway, since I haven't been notified that I am to be reassigned to different location," Sora continued and intertwined her fingers with his.

The gently breeze was enjoyable for Sora, but the breeze kept blowing Matt's hair into his eyes. From the battlement she could see the green horizon. At some point trees took over the grass land and so the horizon that she could see was just a sea of dark green. The warmth of his hand in hers felt comforting and reassuring.

"Takeru talked to Izzy last night about whether the dark fog was connected to the Dark Ocean. Izzy isn't sure," Matt stated and changed his position so he could stare into her pretty brown eyes.

"That's where Kari was taken that one time, if I remember correctly. Hasn't Ken also been there?" Sora responded as she sorted the information she was just given.

"Yeah, Takeru doesn't talk to me much about Kari, but I know he is worried. Izzy even called Ken in after Takeru put forward that theory. Ken has a belief that it's connected to Dark Ocean too," Matt said.

"Well, then it's a good thing Takeru and Kari are being stationed together," Sora replied. "He can take care of her. It's silly, but I think he still thinks he has promise to keep. He promised me he would protect Kari when we had our battle with Piedmon," said Sora.

"If so, he is probably using that as an excuse," Matt said with a smile lighting up his features.

Sora loved his smile. Matt caught her looking at his smile and lean forward and captured Sora's lips in his. The kiss was a sweet chaste kiss, but Sora could feel his sweet feeling for her within it. His lips were warm against hers. She was used to getting chaste kisses from her. He would sometimes do them unexpectedly and surprise her.

Matt's kisses were not like her ex's. His had this sense of respect for her in them. And they revealed that he wasn't after something more than just being with her and sharing moments together. His kisses showed her that he cherished her. The previous kiss she had received from guys were never like that. Plus, Matt communicated his feelings often through kissing her.

He pulled away from her, much to Sora's dislike. He gently placed a hand on her cheek and said: "Please stay safe. If you ever need me, please call me. I will be there as soon as I can. I know you don't need me, and you and Biyomon are great fighters, but I want to be there for you. Stay safe and kick some butt. Show them why the digital world has been saved so many times. And if you ever just need to talk, you know how to reach me."

Sora could feel Matt's thumb gently stroking her cheek as he held. She simply replied back to him by pulling him close to her and bringing her mouth up to meet his.

Abruptly, Sora was startled when Yolei grabbed her into a fierce hug, breaking her from her memory of this morning.

"Make sure to write," said Yolei as she pulled out of her hug with Sora.

"I defiantly will," Sora said and smiled, "if I get a chance."

Sora had almost said her goodbyes to everyone. Everyone seemed to want to drag it out so they wouldn't have to leave, but there is only so much time you can waste by saying goodbye. There was only one more person that she needed to give her a sendoff. The last culprit, was finishing his quick hug with Kari. It was Matt. Even though they said goodbye earlier, she wanted a hug from him before he left. She had given Tai a hug, so she figured she could give her own boyfriend a hug without any one suspecting anything.

Sora made eye contact with Matt and seemed to know what she wanted or maybe he was doing it because he wanted the hug. I guess it doesn't matter though. Sora hugged Matt tightly and Matt held Sora to him. Their hug ended up lasting a little too long, because Takeru gave a cough to get their attention.

"Have a good trip, Sora" said Matt once he broke the hug and Sora was heading towards Birdamon's foot.

"I'll try," Sora called out as she climbed into the cockpit on Birdamon's foot. She buckled herself in and pushed a button on the side wall of the cockpit to close it. The glass moved above her a clicked when it locked into place.

Sora gave a nod and called out on the intercom speaker, "Ready, Birdamon."

All three digimon took off into the air. They circled around the town once before Pegasusmon took the lead and become the leader of their directions. The directions were located in their digivice, so they all had directions, but it was kind of hard to communicate them to their digimon without showing them the digivice. So Takeru realizing this took the lead and had the others follow him and Pegasusmon to make it easier.

When the digimon circled around the town before taking off into the direction of their first location, Sora stared at Matt's figure until she couldn't see it anymore.

There was one thing Sora was sure of in this new adventure. She knew that it was going to be very different from the others, but she also knew that this one might be a little harder for her then she realized. However, she also recognized this would be her opportunity to show Matt not to worry about her. She knew she was going to be fine. Though, she couldn't blame him for worrying since she knew she was going to be the same way once Matt got deployed into action.

On the bright side of things, she realized this adventure and being away from friends meant that she could also prove herself. She was determined to work her way up to leading her own squad when she gets to her station.


End file.
